Exxon Mobil Corp. won a round in its bitter fight against Venezuela's state oil company Thursday as courts in several countries said they would freeze $12 billion in international assets held by Petroleos de Venezuela. Last year, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez nationalized a heavy oil field in eastern Venezuela, and Exxon Mobil has been seeking to recover the value of its investment in the site ever since.

Cashing in on higher prices and production, oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. surprised Wall Street on Thursday with $10.5 billion in third-quarter profit, putting it on pace to smash earnings records for the full year. Exxon's earnings were the second-highest ever recorded by a publicly traded company -- behind its own $10.7-billion profit in last year's final quarter -- and helped reawaken the public outrage that came with this summer's record-high pump prices.

Exxon Mobil Corp. was ordered to pay $500 million in compensatory damages to about 10,000 dealers who claimed the company cheated them in a gasoline discount program, the plaintiffs' lawyer said Tuesday. About 400 current and former dealers in California could be eligible to collect damages. A U.S. District Court jury in Miami issued the judgment after a lengthy trial, which followed a first attempt to try the class-action lawsuit that ended in mistrial in 1999.

Exxon Mobil Corp. said the Alabama Supreme Court threw out a $3.5-billion damage award levied against the oil company for underpaying gas royalties owed the state. The court reversed the jury verdict and sent the case back to a lower court for retrial, the company said.

Exxon Mobil Corp. must face a lawsuit that claims Indonesian soldiers guarding a natural gas processing plant in Aceh province tortured and killed local residents, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington said. Judges upheld a lower court's denial of Exxon Mobil's request to throw out the case. The suit, filed in 2001 by 11 Indonesians, claims that the soldiers were under Exxon Mobil's control, making the Irving, Texas-based company liable.

A former White House official and onetime oil industry lobbyist whose editing of government reports on climate change prompted criticism from environmentalists will join Exxon Mobil Corp., the oil company said. The White House announced that Philip Cooney, chief of staff of its Council on Environmental Quality, had resigned, calling it a long-planned departure.

Exxon Mobil Corp. has declined a request from pension fund trustees in seven states, including California, and New York City to discuss global warming with independent board members of the oil giant. The company said that instead, managers would meet with the pension officials this summer. A group of pension fund leaders and investors accused Exxon Mobil of fighting efforts to limit global warming and failing to invest in alternative energy.

Exxon Mobil Corp. needn't be so sensitive ("Exxon Moves to Head Off Backlash," Jan. 21). Making money is its reason for being, and most of us car owners keep telling it that gasoline is still not too expensive. All the single-occupancy pickup trucks, SUVs and luxury sedans on the road are a clear message that Big Oil has not yet found our ouch point. Gary Paudler Summerland, Calif.

Exxon Mobil Corp. has failed to persuade the Supreme Court to halt a human rights lawsuit against it. The justices rejected the Irving, Texas-based energy company's appeal of a ruling on a 2001 lawsuit filed by International Rights Advocates on behalf of villagers in Indonesia's Aceh province. The suit alleged that the Indonesian military committed rampant human rights abuses against the villagers while under Exxon's employ to guard a natural gas facility.